Hellmode ~A Hardcore Gamer Becomes Peerless in Another World with Retro Game Settings~

The Wind God Vess hovered above Shea.

'Shea, don't let yourself be overwhelmed by all this.'

Luvanka sounded concerned about Shea.

"I know. So what is this trial about?"

Earlier she had thought that the Beast God Cougar would stop her from reaching the staircase, but in reality all she needed was to strike a 5 hit combo. So this time she decided to ask what the trial was first.

'Right, the trial. Try hitting me with [Ruthless Leopard God Attack]. If you can do it, then I'll give you a reward and show you a new path.'

Vess looked through a crumpled piece of paper he took out from his pants as he replied. It seemed like no one had been there in so long that even he had forgotten what the trial was.

"I need to have a combo of 10 to activate that Divine Technique…"

For Shea, who had struggled to connect a combo of 5, reaching 10 seemed like an insurmountable number. The opponent had been a high-ranking god serving the Sun God in the past, and the place had terrible footing with strong winds blowing. The opponent was floating in the air too, so including the disadvantage of the terrain, it seemed like an impossible task.

'You should've obtained it on the floor below. Use it, and you'll pass. But if you fall I won't help you, and I'll be attacking too, so be ready. If you want to give up, now's the time.'

He would give them a way out if they gave up. But he did not seem interested at all in the matter, almost like he had been forced into the role.

"I'm curious, why are you in a place like this, Lord Vess?"

Shea's polite speech was fading away. Arrogant by nature, Shea preferred to choose whom to address respectfully. Overly humbling herself before an opponent before a fight could also cause issues. And she figured that it could be useful to learn why one of the Gods serving the Sun God Amante was there.

'I can't say much, but I'll tell you if you get through the trial.'

"Alright."

Shea had asked everything she could think of, so she looked at Luvanka.

'So we can start now if we want?'

'Of course. I'll grant you the first hit.'

Vess replied in a cocky manner to Luvanka's question.

'Full Beast Mode!!'

'Mythical Beast Mode!!'

Hearing Vess' reply, Shea used her Skill [Full Beast Mode], and Luvanka used his Awakened Skill [Mythical Beast Mode].

After turning into a quadruped beast, she ran up Luvanka's back and jumped up to attack Vess who floated many meters above.

'True Swift Death Strike!'

Shea had picked the Skill [True Swift Death Strike] as it had a short activation time. A moment later, Luvanka also jumped up to Vess. Their attacks were timed in a way that would not give their opponent a moment to fight back.

It was important for Shea's first attack to land so that Luvanka could extend the combo.

There was also another reason why Luvanka had jumped. His arms were long and thick, and he could reach Vess without jumping, but if he used his Special Skill [Asura Charge] in mid-air, he could force Vess onto solid ground, taking away his advantage in height. R

After 12 days of training, Shea and Luvanka had learned to work together.

'...Hm!'

Even as he jumped, Luvanka's eyes continued tracking all of Vess' movements. He wanted to see his reaction to Shea getting closer.

'Whirlwind Legs!'

Vess' Skill was just a bit faster than Shea.

'Gwah?!'

Vess spun while kicking, his body wrapping in blades of wind.

Unable to reach Vess, the wind blades sliced through Shea and sent her flying away. Luvanka was able to stop his Special Skill just in time to catch Shea.

'I see, we need to be careful of Skills that activate so quickly.'

'Yeah!'

Shea and Luvanka returned to the platform. They tried to think of a way to attack again while their bodies healed, but Vess continued attacking, raising his arms wrapped in wind and then swinging them down.

'Wind God Iron-cutting Flash.'

The blades of wind that formed from his arms flew straight at Shea and Luvanka.

'Dodge! Ghah?!'

Luvanka instantly pushed Shea aside. Being pushed to the next platform, Shea turned around and saw Luvanka get hit by another wind blade.

'Luvanka!'

3 of Luvanka's arms were cut right at the shoulder. Then Shea looked at Vess and saw that he was preparing another attack.

'Get back! There's more!!'

'Yeah!'

Even though he had been badly hurt, his Strength Super Regeneration started to regrow the 3 arms, but Luvanka still stepped back.

After retreating more than 100 meters, the blade of wind on Vess' arm dispersed. He also stopped glaring at them and just stared vacantly. Shea jumped off the platform and went to regroup with Luvanka.

'So he won't attack us unless we also try to attack him…'

'That's the same as Lord Cougar.'

They understood that at least they would have plenty of time to devise a strategy. Though it was hard to know how far Zew and the others had progressed in their trials, they realized that a haphazard assault would not lead to success. It was unclear how serious Vess’s attacks were, but it seemed he could easily cut through Shea and Luvanka without much effort.

'He's also using Skills, unlike Cougar. I'm sure the wind blowing upwards around the platforms is also coming from him.'

They had to be careful when jumping off the platform, since the wind could easily throw them off balance, and there was only a bottomless abyss below them.

'There's no point in crying about it though. We just have to make do with what we have. Though a 10 hit combo…that sounds rather difficult.'

[Conditions for a combo] -A single skill or a normal attack counts as one combo. -Multiple hits from a continuous attack count as one combo, whether all hits connect or just one. -If two people attack simultaneously, it counts as two combos. -If there's a guard, counterattack, or a skill fails to activate, the combo sequence is broken.

Hearing Luvanka's comment, Shea recalled the conditions for a combo.

'Right, everything we have. What would Allen think in a time like this? Maybe he has something that could help break the deadlock.'

Luvanka also had access to Allen's memories he had shared. So Shea asked him to find something.

'Wait, let me think…hmm.'

Luvanka closed his eyes and began searching through Allen's memories.

'What's taking so long? Allen always found a way through, I'm sure he'd do something here too.'

Shea knew all of Allen's previous victories, but Luvanka remained silent. After many minutes, Luvanka opened his eyes.

'...It's impossible.'

'What? What's impossible?'

'Apparently Allen is really bad at fighting games.'

'Fighting games? Hm? I think he said something like that when he saw my [Inexhaustible Beast King] before.'

Shea recalled Allen using that term before.

'Allen doesn't have the knowledge to build up an endless or mid-air combo.'

Allen had loved to speedrun games in his past world. He had some genres he liked and titles he put a lot of time into. But he had never been the type of gamer that latches onto any new release.

[Allen's game history] -Preferred Genres: RPGs, Online Games (especially MMOs), Roguelikes -Games he was bad at: Fighting Games, FPS, Survival Horror

Back when Allen was Kenichi, fighting games were really popular in arcades and home consoles. But he was more interested in RPGs, focusing on defeating the Demon King and leveling up all the could in a fantasy world of swords and magic.

As Luvanka explained, Allen had a specific taste in the genres he played, but that helped little in their current predicament.

'It's not time to make excuses. It doesn't matter if he didn't like them, he must know something. What's that infinite combo thing?'

Shea was trying to find hints in everything Luvanka had said.

'An infinite combo is a set of attacks that doesn't let the opponent make a move.'

'That's exactly what we need, isn't it? How do we do that?'

Shea felt like they had found the answer.

'His memories mention cornering the enemy against the wall and continuing a combo endlessly.'

'The wall?'

Luvanka explained the sight of a character on a game screen pinned against the wall and being hit endlessly.

Hearing that, Shea began looking around. There was no floor or ceiling, but there was a wall, which seemed almost like a cliff many kilometers tall. Somehow the floor had broken earlier, but they were still inside the building.

They needed to pin Vess against the wall and use an infinite combo to reach a combo of 10 and activate the Divine Technique [Ruthless Leopard God Attack], and they would pass.

'He stops attacking if we get a certain distance away…but how do we get it started?'

Before Shea could say more, Luvanka said that. Vess was floating in the air 100 meters away from them. He was not even looking at them, and did not seem like he was going to attack them.

'We'll need to use our heads to get through this trial.'

'Well, that sounds like it'll take a while. Don't forget that my days are counted.'

'I know. Let's just try to do it quickly.'

Shea and Luvanka sighed, realizing how harsh the trial would be.